I'm boycotting those automatic checkouts they've started to put in all the supermarkets. Probably if I had been around at the time when big shops moved in I would have boycotted them too but as we are, they are such a normal thing now in a city and soon those machines will be. Everything by degrees, everything relative. When I go to pay the real live human being at the till I always ask them "What do you think of those things?" and point to the madly beeping machine which keeps repeating itself over and over to some poor confused person who just wants to buy a pint of milk. Every time the answer is one of the following "I can't stand them", "It's driving me crazy", "I just have to try to switch off and not hear it or I'll go insane". What are we trying to do to each other, to ourselves I really wonder? Hey, let's get machines to do the one piece of work in a shop which might involve a little human interaction so you guys can focus on emptying boxes of produce? I suppose the supermarkets would like to close altogether and for people to just order everything online, much easier, you can just operate huge warehouses and no one needs to see a soul.
We're getting so so close to the point where we won't even leave our homes to do anything. Stay in your little bubble and have everything brought to you while you lose your attention entirely to games and emails and whatever else you are plugged into for every waking minute. We're getting beyond isolated. I'm sitting alone, writing this on a computer of course, I see the amusement in that. I don't deny that the internet has connected me to lots of beautiful people and experiences but I do wonder if we lose more than we gain by putting so much reliance and time into these things? I have realised that I'm quite repelled by technology at the moment, experiencing a lot of resistance. It's certainly the clutter, the over saturation, the flashing lights, the buzzing screens, beeping machines, the mindless easy entertainment, the dehumanisation, the ego trips. I suppose it's my age as well, have I maybe been on the cusp of this real boom in computer use? Because I remember a time where it was really unusual to have a computer in the house, or you maybe just had one shared between everyone and now it's just blown out of all proportion and I think it's quite scary.
I know it should be "everything in moderation" but I think most of us are incapable of that. I seem to be talking about the internet more than automatic checkouts now. Did you notice that if it's spring where you are, that there are jewel-like buds on the tips of every single branch and when you look up at them at night it looks like snowflakes? I suppose I'll just need to adjust and settle into things. I guess this happens to every single person at some point in their lives when the world starts to change and when they do too of course. I do wonder what the best way to deal with all this stuff is, it seems as daft to run away and hide in a cave with a flock of pygmy goats and pretend the computer was never invented as it does to suddenly put your whole life into ones and zeros. Maybe it's possible for us to come to our senses just a little bit?
